Pre-matric scholarships go e-way

Applying for pre-matric scholarship has been made easy with the Social Welfare department computerising the entire process. Students can now submit their applications online.

The facility is available on the website of the Social Welfare department - sw.kar.nic.in.The students need to fill in details along with the bank account number and the scholarship will be directly credited to the student’s account.

This is the first time in the country that the pre-matric scholarship procedure has gone online, Naveen Raj, Commissioner, Social Welfare department, told Deccan Herald.

The initiative aims to ensure transparency as huge amount of money used to be swindled and the money did not reach many students, the commissioner said.

The new system will eliminate the number of people involved in the process and bring down the time taken to process the applications.

“Every year, clerks at the taluk level spend at least three months just to sign all the cheques,” he said.

The earlier system was rather cumbersome. After the schools compiled the students’ data and sent it to the officials concerned, they had to manually scrutinise each application and sign cheques.

They had to draw bills, collect money from the treasury and deliver it to the headmasters.

Often, at the end of this chain, students would be left without scholarship as there was misappropriation of funds. It was also noticed that headmasters retained the money meant for students, said the commissioner.

The online system requires students to fill in basic information along with bank account details. The department website has linked the IFSC code of all bank branches in Karnataka.

Once the money is deposited into the account, an SMS alert will be sent to the cellphone number furnished by the student.

It will be made for the student to open a zero-balance account. A circular will be sent to all schools soon.